Time Management

I don't know if it's just a natural phenomenon of getting older, but it seems like time just keeps speeding up. It doesn't help that while my husband is still in school we're still living our life divided into semesters, and moving every few months, both of which seem to be big reminders of how much time has gone by. Whenever I think that I still have plenty of time to work on a project, or clean the house, or lose 20 pounds I realize that a few hours, weeks, or months have slipped by and no progress has been made.

In light of this I am re-implementing a time schedule that I used a few years ago, pre-baby. I can't say for sure that I followed it to a T back then, but now that my son is older and into a pretty decent routine again that allows me to have more control over my time (rather than planning my day around naptime, feeding, diapers and the like) and I have more freedom to work on projects.

This is only week one, so let's not hold our breathe about anything, but so far I've spent a lot more time actually cleaning, and catching up some things I've been neglecting (like a stack of papers to sort on my counter) and much less time aimless on the computer.

Here's a little peek:

There are still quite a few empty squares in the whole weekly schedule, so this week I'm sort of feeling it out and making adjustments. I also have "free time" scheduled in a few places just so I don't get overwhelmed and feeling to trapped into this. But I feel really confident about how it's been going for the past few days.

Hopefully though this will help me to exercise regularly (daily) and also actually make time for working on projects without feeling guilty that I'm stealing time away from something else (like cleaning the house!) because everything important is scheduled in.

Stroller Makeover

Last year in quick need of an umbrella stroller I decided that this little number from Walmart was a decent (cheap) option (you know it was sort of a "best the worst" situation):

 

  

After awhile I started to hate this more and more and something had to be done. I got really close to trading it in last month at the Babies'R'Us  trade-in/upgrade event for a discount on a new one, but my thriftier craftier side won out and I'm so pleased with the results!

I used a basic black and white stripe which I sewed into a chevron pattern and trimmed out with yellow grosgrain ribbon for a cheery pop of color:

 

It was a pretty simple project. For semi-step-by-step instructions click the "read more" button:

Spice Rack of My Dreams

I have always wanted a big spice rack. Like, a really big one, not one of those 16 or 24 pre-filled kinds you can get at Walmart, but one that could hold 40 or even 50 different spices. Anything that large online is upwards of $100+, so I knew this dream would only be fulfilled as a DIY project. The problem was I had no cute spice jars, or any idea how to make a good rack for them.

 I got lucky in Ikea one day when I happened upon a pallet of spice jars that were on sale for 50 cents/each (I think they were being discontinued). Since I wasn't exactly sure how many I would need, and I figured that my growing collection of spices would probably only increase over the years I thought 50 was a good number to get. But to err on the side of caution (you've got to factor in a few extra for ones that might get broken by children or whatnot) my husband and I decided that 100 would probably be a safe bet (remember these were being discontinued so if was going in on these I was going in all the way, I'm not about to repurchase a ton of new spice jars down the road just because I failed to get enough the first time around and I hate being mismatched).

So I happily went home and transferred all my spices from their store purchased hodgepodge of glass and plastic jars, and bulk bags I was so pleased to finally have matching jars. I even made pretty labels for each jar with some frosted clear Avery labels. And then they sat in my cupboard pretty though unseen for quite awhile.

Then fortune struck again and I saw a post on Ikea Hackers for a model train display case and I knew it was the perfect thing for my spices (of course with deeper shelves).

So I used one Komplement shelf (on sale for $20 at the time, unfortunately the style I used is no longer available) and then got a piece of wood cut at Lowe's for the shelves in between. It ended up being the perfect height between each shelf for 4 rows of jars.

 Look at all the pretty jars lined up!

In my last apartment it fit perfectly above the sink,and there was even room for a few extra spices in each row for the future, Right now it's got about 52 spices.